There are many cases where a single pollinator is responsible for pollinating many species of plants, for example long-tongued flies (Tabanidae and Nemestrinidae) are the exclusive pollinators of many genera of petaloid monocots as well as Pelargonium and Erica; a butterfly is the exclusive pollinator of a phylogenetically disparate group of red-flowered and autumn-flowering species; hopliine (monkey) beetle pollination has evolved convergently in many genera, etc.

This species flowers in the dry season, thus providing pollen to nectar-feeding long-tongued bats (Choeronycteris mexicana and Glossophaga soricina) – amongst the most important pollinators of the Sonoran region – at a time when few other plants are in flower.

Among them was Colonel Milton Caukins, tax collector and assistant deputy sheriff who, never quite at ease in the presence of his long-tongued wife, expanded discursively so soon as he found himself in the office of The